"Something's wrong," Wolverine told the others the moment they emerged on to the streets of London.

Shock looked around in surprise, "Yeah…where is everybody? The streets are deserted."

Magneto said, "It's Oculus. He's controlling the inhabitants of London."

"Is he powerful enough to do that?"

"A foolish question. You can see the evidence with your own eyes."

Logan shook his head, and sniffed the air keenly, "It's not just that. There's definitely something amiss. Something just doesn't add up. My senses are trying to give me a warning, but I can't figure out what it is."

"Perhaps he has laid a trap," Magneto suggested. "Come. We must hurry. I know where he will be. The Prime Minister's office is in Downing Street. He'll be controlling the city from there."

It was not far. They had landed as close as was safely possible. They hurried the rest of the way, through empty, desolate streets completely devoid of life. With every step, Logan's apprehension grew. His feral instincts were screaming 'danger' to him, but he couldn't for the life of him work out why. Was it a scent he couldn't quite put his finger on? Was there some kind of ambush awaiting them? He scanned their surroundings carefully, but couldn't see any indication of a hidden threat. Maybe it was just anxiety and confusion and suspicion all knotted together inside of him. He had to focus.

"He's here," Magneto said, breaking the silence. "I can feel the psychic energy. Even you can feel it, can't you Pyro?"

"Yes," the younger man said sullenly.

"What's our plan, chief?" said Shapeshifter, looking at Scott.

Cyclops decided, "We have to find Neil and talk to him. We have to convince him that while his motives may be pure, his means are all wrong. We have to track him down as quickly as possible."

"No," said Magneto. "Nobody must approach him but me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Any of the rest of you will simply fall to his psychic power. You'll become his mindless slaves, like this entire city. You can't go near him."

"I thought you said you needed our help," said Rogue suspiciously.

"Indeed I do. I need you to create a diversion, to distract him, so I can approach him without detection. If I can get to him unawares, it will simplify matters greatly. And when he discovers our intentions, no doubt he will send London's military forces after us. That should keep you occupied."

"We can't trust him," Pyro snapped, pointing an accusing finger at Magneto. "He's hiding something. He still hasn't answered my question about what he did to my daughter. We can't trust him."

"We can trust him about as much as we can trust you," Logan shot back. "After all the shit you've pulled, you've got no place telling us who can or can't be trusted."

"I'm going in too," said Pyro. "I can block psychic power. It won't affect me. And Cyclops, don't argue. You'd be wasting your breath. I don't take orders from you. Or from anybody any more."

"All right, fine," Scott responded. "We don't have time to argue about it, so get moving."

Without another word, Pyro and Magneto turned and hurried inside the door of number 10 Downing Street. The others watched them go, then focussed their attention on Scott, "What's the plan?"

"Like he said, a distraction. We have to get Neil's attention away from here. We have to do something that makes it look as if we're threatening his plans."

"Such as?"

"I'm thinking. Gaia?"

There was no response from Chloe.

"Gaia?"

Fliss glanced around, "Hey, where is she? Chloe?"

"Where'd we lose her?"

"Gaia?"

"Chloe! Where are you?"

"Do you think she's been attacked?" Fliss gasped.

"I don't know," said Scott. "But if she's in trouble we have to find her. Damn it, we can't afford any delay! We'll have to split up and search. Move!"

They rushed into action, hurrying off in different directions to look for their missing friend. Maybe Magneto had been right. Maybe there had been a trap, one so skilful that Chloe had been grabbed when nobody noticed. Whatever, they knew they had mere minutes to find her. Any more time than that and they would be jeopardising the whole operation.

Magneto seemed to know where he was going, so Pyro followed him through the interior of the Prime Minister's residence. Pyro was growing more and more unsettled by the moment. He couldn't shake the feeling that – in some strange way – they were being watched. As if some kind of presence was with them…as if the whole building was itself some kind of presence. Sometimes he felt as if they were being followed. He thought he heard footsteps, or voices, or other unexplained sounds. He hadn't felt comfortable from the first moment he'd stepped into this building. There was something lurking here, some invisible unexplained force. Was it Oculus and his psychic energy? Was it something else? Had Magneto gotten it all wrong? Could there be some other horror prowling here, waiting for them?

"Are you getting this really weird feeling? That we're not alone?" he asked.

At first he thought he was just going to be ignored again, but Magneto spoke, "Of course we can feel it. It's his psychic power, spread over the city like some kind of bubble. It feels stronger now because we're getting closer to the source, to Oculus himself."

"And what are we going to do when we find him?"

"Whatever is necessary."

It was time they could not afford to waste, but none of them was willing to leave a friend potentially in danger. Could Chloe have been attacked? They doubted she had simply gotten lost. Was there some kind of hunter out here, stalking them? It seemed unlikely. Neil wouldn't be capable of doing that while maintaining his psychic dominance. And besides, he wouldn't attack his own wife, would he? They couldn't be sure.

Logan had picked up her scent quickly enough, first retracing his steps back to the jet. She'd been with them at that point…where had her path suddenly diverged? He could follow her trail now…yes, she'd gone off a different way somewhere along the line. But why? Had she seen something? Had she been knocked out and dragged? Had she been unable to cope with what Neil was doing, and hidden herself in denial? Well, he'd know soon. The scent was getting stronger. He had to be close now…

He never saw the attack coming. A heavy object crashed into the back of his skull, and Logan was knocked to the ground. In the last moment before unconsciousness, he suddenly realised what it was that had been bothering him, that his senses had been warning him about. But it was too late to do anything about it now…

Rogue had been close enough to hear the impact. The sound of a body crumpling to the floor filled her with dread. Somehow she knew, instinctively, that one of her friends had just been attacked. She thought about calling the others to warn them, but the attacker had to be close, and she didn't want to give away her position. She crouched to reduce her visibility, and looked intently in the direction the sound had come from. There was no movement, and no more sound. She decided to take her chances and began to crouch-run over that way. Nothing stirred, and she began to wonder if the noise really had been what she'd thought it was. Could she have been mistaken. Could her nervousness and confusion have been messing with her mind?

A sudden noise made her turn, but she saw no more of the attacker than Logan had. A solid weight hit her between the eyes, and her world became darkness.

Scott knew something was wrong when he found Iceman and Shapeshifter's unmoving bodies less than ten yards apart. He knew in that instant his suspicions had been correct. There was an attacker. Somebody had gotten to Chloe, and was now going after them one at a time. It had been a mistake to split up, but they had so little time there hadn't been much option. Was Neil behind this? He had to be. He had to know they were here. It was already too late to run any kind of distraction. Oculus already knew what was happening. Pyro and Magneto were not sneaking up on him unawares, as they thought. He was fully aware of their approach, and probably had plans in motion to deal with it.

Damn it! Everything's going wrong! So much is happening in such a short time that we just can't deal with it! What the hell do we do now?

His hand on his visor, he carefully scanned the area for whoever might have attacked his friends. He'd already checked, and they were not dead. Just unconscious. That was a good sign. Neil wasn't ready to kill them. He still saw some value in keeping them alive. Hopefully that meant there was still some way of getting to him, some way of making him understand. Cautiously, Scott moved on. There might be nothing else for it but to head back to 10 Downing Street himself, and lend whatever aid he could to Pyro and Magneto.

On the way, he stumbled over another body: Shock. She was unconscious but alive, like the others. Were any of the others still moving about? Was he the only one left? He made the decision, and began to hurry back to Number 10. His only option now seemed to be to confront Neil himself, if possible, and try to talk some sense into him. Whoever this attacker was, it wasn't Neil himself. Presumably it was somebody – or a whole lot of somebodies – he was psychically controlling.

In his haste, Scott was moving too fast to see the attack when it came. Something heavy struck him in the side of the head, knocking his visor away. Desperately he shut his eyes, and tried to duck away from where he guessed the next attack would come from. Blinded, his co-ordination wasn't too good. He was hit again, and this time knocked out cold.

Chloe Rosiçky flung aside the crowbar, and reached for her communicator, speaking quickly, "Neil? It's done. I'm on my way."